2022News

The legacy of Roberto Furcal: People hired for useless jobs in public education system

Diario Libre reports that the Ministry of Education has several payrolls with a large numbers of employees resulting in wasteful spending of funds that should be focused on improving the quality of student learning in public schools. The newspaper says that an example of this is Educational District 02-05 in San Juan de la Maguana where 193 employees cost the Ministry of Education RD$7.8 million each month. There are 71 teaching technicians, 55 promoters, 21 janitors, six school police assistants and three security assistants, monitors, five secretaries, four messengers, three assistants, a director, a coordinator, a district advisor, a supervisor and a journalist, among others.

Diario Libre says the problem is there is no space in the schools to house all this surplus staff. To justify the payrolls, the past administration organized shifts so that the employees could comply with minimum requirements to be paid. Diario Libre reports the same situation is happening in the 122 educational districts of the Ministry of Education.

The new Education Minister Angel Hernandez has the challenge to remove the strong influence of politics in the public education system. The former minister of Education, Roberto Furcal worsened an already bad situation with thousands of political hirings. Furcal was the campaign manager for President Luis Abinader in the 2020 general election.

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Diario Libre

4 October 2022